Our elected officials don't need big gifts

Pennsylvania lawmakers provide us gifts that keep on taking -- an antiquated system of state-run liquor, beer and wine sales, education funding that rewards the rich and robs the poor, an unfunded public pension liability worth $48 billion, and, our personal favorite, the property tax as a means of funding public education.

But for the lawmakers themselves, gifts keep on coming their way.

A recent analysis by The Associated Press, reported last week by PA Independent, showed lawmakers claimed more than $43,000 in gifts in 2012 on financial disclosure forms. That only includes the gifts of more than $250 value that are required by Pennsylvania financial disclosure laws.

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ďThese gifts are there for one reason: to create preferred relationships with policymakers that other taxpayers are not able to have,Ē said Barry Kauffman, executive director of Common Cause Pennsylvania, a group which supports reforming the stateís policy for political gift-giving, PA Independent Watchdog reporter Eric Boehm wrote.

Kauffman makes the point that some states have a full ban on gifts, a policy that Pennsylvania watchdog groups would like to see here.

ďTen states have full bans on gifts for politicians, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Another 31 states have monetary limits, ranging from $3 per day in Iowa to the Texas limit of $500 for gifts and another $500 for entertainment per year. ... Pennsylvania is one of just 10 states with no monetary limits on gifts, though Pennsylvania law specifies that gifts may not be given or received if they are intended to influence decisions,Ē Boehmís report stated.

The report goes on to list examples that range from tickets to the Super Bowl or Phillies games to travel to places as exotic as Turkey and Ireland.

Pricetags cited range from a $100 gift of an autographed Phillies bat to $10,900 for a trip to Turkey for a Lancaster state senator hosted by a cultural exchange group.

And, how does a better understanding of Turkish culture give a Lancaster Republican a better understanding of Pennsylvania needs?

Not surprisingly, the gift giving goes beyond the Legislature to include Gov. Tom Corbett.

Examples included a Corbett $11,000 trip to France in 2012, with the cost covered by the Team Pennsylvania Foundation, which sponsors trade missions. ďWhile there, the governor received one of the more unique gifts reported by state policymakers: a $275 fountain pen. Corbett also got two Turkish robes and towels, along with a vase and plate, valued at $275 from the Turkish Cultural Center Pennsylvania,Ē PA Independent reported.

This report makes it clear that gift giving and lobbyist controls are among the reforms needed in Pennsylvania.

As long as our elected officials accept travel, sports events tickets and expensive gifts, we cannot trust their loyalties.

In a state government as filled with corruption and illegal influence peddling as Pennsylvania has shown to be, the legal influence peddling is just the tip of the iceberg.

Reform has to begin somewhere in this bloated and inefficient state government.